“You really are the first dragon,” I said, touching his jaw, filled with admiration and awe and no little pride that I had known such a being.

“That is a long time in the past. As my children point out, there is life to be lived now.” He lifted my hand to his mouth, his lips caressing my fingers in a way that made all my internal organs melt into puddles of happy goo.

Emotion swamped me then. Hope gave way to desire, and finally to something strange and wonderful, a painful aching that left me wanting to beg, “With me. Live your life with me!”

The words trembled on my lips just as I leaned in to kiss him.

“—couldn’t find his arse with both hands. Why my granddaughter Maura married him is beyond my understanding.” The man who gave orders suddenly came back to life, glancing around him in surprise. His eyes landed on first me, then Avval, sight of the latter causing him to take a step backward. “The dragon ancestor. Don’t tell me Tully Sullivan has died again and you’ve come to resurrect her?”

Avval frowned at him. “I do not know who you are, or of whom you speak, but I suspect you are responsible for binding Charity’s wrists. I do not take kindly to abuse of her.”

“I am Dr. Kostich, head of the L’au-dela Committee.”

“Ah. The archimage.” Avval did an amazing thing then—he managed to give the impression of looking down his nose at Dr. Kostich without actually doing so. “Your interference is not welcome. You may leave.”

Dr. Kostich was obviously a man who recognized just what a unique being Avval was, but just as obviously, he didn’t like the fact that he more or less had to kowtow to him. After a few moments of visual struggle, he finally gestured toward me and said, “This woman poses a danger to the entire Otherworld. She cannot be allowed to run amok.”

“Oh, you haven’t seen me run amok,” I said, annoyed as hell that he’d interrupted what was probably going to be a humdinger of a kiss. “You want to see it? Because I’m happy to do it. Watch me put the entire town to sleep!”

I took a deep breath, but Avval stopped me by sliding his arm around my waist, and pulling me up to his side. I stared at him in utter surprise.

“If you so fear her in your world, then she will simply reside elsewhere,” he said calmly.

Dr. Kostich’s gaze flickered back and forth between Avval and me. “I see. I ... yes, I believe I see.”

“I’m glad you do, because I don’t,” I snapped, pushing myself away from Avval. “You’re not talking about killing me, are you? Because you can’t look at me one minute like you want me to take off all your clothes and touch you everywhere, and lick that fabulous tattoo from dragon head to pointy tail, and do all of the things that I suddenly can’t stop thinking about, and in the next want to take me off this mortal coil.”

“On the contrary,” he said with a slow smile that set fire to my soul. Literally. Fire burst out at my feet and slowly climbed upward. “I intend to do just that.”

I stared at him, confused, until he pulled me against him, his lips teasing mine, his fire burning bright in and around me when he said softly, “I do not abide in the mortal plane, Charity. You will come into the Beyond with me, and share your life with me. You will be away from the threats posed by ignorance and fear, and will sing for me whenever you like, not because you are trying to save yourself, but because you wish to.”

“The Beyond? That’s like another form of reality, isn’t it?”

“Of a sort, yes. I have a home there, with gardens, and fountains, and animals of all sorts. Do you like animals?”

“So long as they don’t bite or sting me, yes. What do you do in your house?”

“Whatever I desire.”

I sighed a little, my heart yearning for what I knew it couldn’t have—a home. One filled with security and love. “That sounds idyllic.”

He was silent for a moment, his thumb stroking my cheek. “It was for a while. Of late, it has made me aware of just how alone I am. How separated from my kin I am. And how empty my home is.”

Tears pricked my eyes when he bent down to kiss me, tears of gratitude mingled with heartbreaking sadness. He must have noticed, because he broke off the kiss to gaze at me with eyes that were turning a bronze color. “Why do you weep?”

“I can’t stay with you,” I said softly, wishing like hell that Dr. Kostich wasn’t standing there listening to us.

To my surprise, he turned around and walked away, going to the entrance of the park before stopping. The two men who had captured me were still under the spell of my push, and mindlessly unaware of what was going on around them.

A little frown ruined Avval’s smooth forehead. “This makes no sense.”

“Unfortunately, it makes every sort of sense.” I took a deep breath. I’d never before opened up my heart to anyone, man or woman, and doing so now made me feel incredibly vulnerable, but there was nothing for it. “If I stay with you, I’m going to fall madly in love with you. To be honest, I think I’m partly there now, since there’s nothing I want more than to spend my days and nights with you, watching your eyes change, and listening to you talk about your dragonkin, and catching that little smile you make when you think no one is watching, and ... oh, a hundred other things. But I can’t.”

“You have someone binding you here?” he asked, looking around as if such a person would suddenly manifest. “I did not sense a claim upon your heart, but perhaps living as a modern dragon has affected my ability to judge such things.”

I put a hand on his chest, right over where his heart beat so strong and true beneath my fingers, the tears in my eyes calling my throat to ache. “No, there is no one here for me. But that’s just the point—if I go with you, I’ll fall wholly and completely in love with you, and then you’ll love me back, and then we’ll both be miserable because you won’t be a god anymore, and you’ll have to come back here and be a mortal, and then they’ll capture me again, and we won’t be together.”

His frown deepened. “What is this? Why would I be mortal?”

“You know.” I nudged him. “That rule where gods can’t love mortals without losing their powers.”

He stared at me as if I suddenly had a hundred Newfoundland dog demons dancing on my head. “There is no such rule. I do not live by rules. I am as you see me. Nothing can change that.”